1. Introduction
1.1 Assumptions
1.2 Features
2. Newsletter demonstration web page
2.1 Newsletters for the impatient
2.2 Reading the latest issue
2.3 Archive of newsletter issues
2.4 Subscribing to the newsletter
2.4.1 Validation and approval
2.4.2 Validation only
2.5 Unsubscribing from the newsletter
2.6 Receiving newsletters by e-mail
2.6.1 Announcement
2.6.2 Announcement with teasers
2.6.3 Full newsletter
2.7 Contributing
3. Content options
3.1 Configure
3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel
3.1.2 E-mail parameters
3.1.3 Templates for newsletter layout
3.1.4 Contribution policy
3.1.5 Subscription policy
3.1.6 Web page configuration
3.1.7 Newsletter administration
3.2 Compose
3.2.1 Adding an article
3.2.2 Editing an article
3.2.3 Deleting an article
3.2.4 Postponing an article
3.2.5 Selecting an article
3.2.6 Changing the article order
3.2.7 Previewing the new issue online
3.2.8 Sending a preview by e-mail
3.3 Publish
3.3.1 Final preview online
3.3.2 Final preview by e-mail
3.3.3 Publishing the new newsletter issue
3.4 Subscribers
3.4.1 Adding a subscriber
3.4.2 Editing a subscriber
3.4.3 Deleting a subscriber
3.4.4 Approving a subscription request
3.4.5 Blacklisting an e-mail address
3.4.6 Downloading subscriber data
3.4.7 Uploading subscriber data
3.5 Queue
4. Advanced options
4.1 Access control
4.1.1 Newsletter Editor
4.1.2 Newsletter Publisher
4.2 Using teasers ('Ankeilers')
5. The module in practice: tips
5.1 Deep-links to newsletter articles
5.1.1 Newsletter URLs
5.1.2 Articles within a newsletter
5.2 CSS in newsletter vs. BSSS on webpage
5.3 Overview of available CSS selectors
5.4 Overview of available template variables
In this chapter we document the Newsletter module, for both visitors and Newsletter Administrators.
Visitors can read the latest newsletter online, access the newsletter archive, contribute articles for a future newsletter issue and can subscribe to and unsubscribe from the e-mail version.
Newsletter Administrators can create newsletters, add, edit, delete and arrange newsletter articles, publish newsletters, manage subscriptions and keep an eye on the queue with outgoing newsletter e-mails.
The whole process is explained using our own demonstration data from the Exemplum Primary School, a small school described in Account Manager.
This chapter builds on other chapters. We assume you have at least done Basic procedures for beginners of the Website@School Users' Guide.
Most examples below are based on the demonstration data that was added when Website@School was installed. If the demodata is not available, we assume that you have created a new page connected to the newsletter module. A short recipe is available in section 2.1 Newsletters for the impatient below.
NOTICE:
Almost all tasks related to the newsletter can be performed by either
a Newsletter Editor or a Newsletter Publisher. If the distinction
between these roles is irrelevant they are referred to as Newsletter
Administrator. Details are discussed in section 4.1 Access control.
Below is a list of features, in no particular order.
NOTICE:
The word 'newsletter' carries different meanings. Sometimes it is used to refer
to the publication (or 'title' or 'zine') as a whole, e.g. the
Monthly Exemplum Newsletter; sometimes it refers
to a single copy or issue, e.g. the May issue of the Monthly
Exemplum Newsletter.
A newsletter with installed demonstration data can be found here: Exemplum Primary School - MyPage - Showcase - Newsletter. The top of that page (for the purpose of this documentation sometimes referred to as the newsletter home page) looks like this.
[Two demonstration articles snipped] The bottom of the page looks like this.
The example newsletter is called the Monthly Exemplum Newsletter and the latest issue (Volume 2014 Number 4) is displayed on the newsletter home page. The newsletters all follow the same pattern:
Do not worry about the colours of the header, articles and footer. These can be changed with Bazaar Style Style Sheets (BSSS) to fit your theme.
If you are impatient, you can create your own Newsletter from scratch by following the steps below.
To get hands-on experience, create a test Newsletter yourself, for example in the Area of the Exemplum Primary School demonstration data. You know how to add a page because you have done the Basic procedures for beginners.
Here is the recipe to setup your own newsletter test.
The results are as follows. The newsletter is visible online.
The newsletter is also sent by e-mail. Below are two screenshots of the same newsletter: one in the webmail client Squirrelmail and one using Mozilla Thunderbird.
Here ends the section 'Newsletters for the impatient'.
Depending on the configuration of the newsletter channel (see section 3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel) the latest issue is visible on the newsletter home page on the website.
The newsletter can simply be read from beginning to end using the vertical scrollbar. It is also possible to navigate to a particular article within the newsletter using the clickable links in the table of contents, e.g. clicking Excursion for Seniors positions the blue titlebar of that article at the top of the browser window for easy reading.
After clicking the title Excursion for Seniors of the article you return to the table of contents, i.e. the red titlebar of the table of contents is positioned at the top of the browser window
After clicking Print in the green bar at the bottom of the screen a print version of the newsletter opens, in a new browser window. Note that this shows only the newsletter and not the website navigation menus, breadcrumb trail, etc.
NOTICE
The website version and the print version of the newsletter can be
styled differently as is illustrated above in the background colours of
the article title (blue versus green) and author (transparent versus
pink). Details are discussed in section 5.2 CSS in newsletter vs. BSSS on webpage.
After clicking Archive, in the green bar at the bottom of the screen, the newsletter archive overview is displayed.
This shows an overview of all available volumes (including the current volume) and a list of all numbers per volume (including the current issue) in the form of clickable links.
The overview per volume not only has clickable links to the individual newsletters (both online and print versions), but shows a clickable table of contents of each newsletter too.
Example: following the link Plans for the next year shows the corresponding article from volume 2014 number 3, positioned at the top of the window.
If the configured policy allows it (see section 3.1.5 Subscription policy), visitors can submit a request to subscribe to the e-mail version of the newsletter. There are two variants:
In the former case the subscription request has to be approved manually by a Newsletter Administrator (see section 3.4.4 Approving a subscription request). In the latter case anyone with a valid, working e-mail address can subscribe to the newsletter; a subscription request is automatically approved.
NOTICE:
In either case the new subscriber first has to prove that the e-mail
address actually works. This is accomplished by sending the new
subscriber an e-mail with a unique code. If the new subscriber enters
the correct code we can be confident that the subscriber does have
access to the e-mail address and in fact wants to receive the
newsletter. This procedure prevents "jokes" like subscribing
other people without their consent. It also makes sure that the
Newsletter Administrator does not have to spend time dealing with
invalid e-mail addresses.
In this section we describe the subscription process for the two-step variant as it is perceived by a visitor. We illustrate this using the information of Catherine Hayes.
After clicking the Subscribe link near the bottom of the page the Subscribe dialogue opens.
Explanation:
After clicking the
button the following e-mail message is sent to Catherine.This e-mail message tells Catherine that her e-mail address and name were used in a subscription request for the "Monthly Exemplum Newsletter", submitted from IP-address 192.168.0.50. Catherine is solicited to confirm this request and the validity of her e-mail address, by either:
NOTICE:
If, for some reason, the Confirmation dialogue has
disappeared from the browser you can return to that dialogue via the
Confirm link in the green bar, at the
bottom of the page.
NOTICE:
There is a time limit of 30 minutes for entering the confirmation
code. If necessary, a new code can be requested by starting the
subscription process again, from the start.
After entering the one-time code and pressing
.
The only thing left to do for Catherine is wait for a Newsletter
Administrator to approve her request. This process is discussed in
section 3.4.4 Approving a subscription
request.
Once the request is approved, the following e-mail notification is sent to Catherine.
Catherine is now subscribed to the newsletter.
In this section we describe the subscription process for the one-step variant as it is perceived by a visitor. We illustrate this using the information of Andrew Reese.
After clicking the Subscribe link near the bottom of the page the Subscribe dialogue opens. This is almost the same dialogue as in the two-step process. The notable difference is that the Remarks field is missing.
At first the one-step process works in much the same way as the two-step process described in the section 2.4.1 Validation and approval:
After entering the one-time code and clicking button
.
Andrew is now subscribed to the newsletter.
NOTICE:
This process does require a validation of the e-mail address
via a one-time code, but it does not require the attention of
a Newsletter Administrator to complete the subscription
process. However, after the new subscriber successfully completes the
one-step subscription process, a notification is sent to the
Newsletter Administrator, as illustrated below.
In this section we describe the process for ending the subscription to the newsletter as it is perceived by a subscriber. We illustrate this using the information of Herbert Spencer.
After clicking the Unsubscribe link near the bottom of the page the Unsubscribe dialogue opens.
The only information needed to start the process is the e-mail address, here herbert@exemplum.eu. After clicking
, two things happen:The following e-mail message is sent to Herbert.
This e-mail message tells Herbert that his e-mail address was used in an unsubscription request for the "Monthly Exemplum Newsletter", submitted from IP-address 192.168.0.50. Herbert is solicited to confirm this request by either
NOTICE:
If, for some reason, the Confirmation dialogue has
disappeared from the browser you can return to that dialogue via the
Confirm link in the green bar, at the
bottom of the page.
NOTICE:
There is a time limit of 30 minutes for entering the confirmation
code. If necessary, a new code can be requested by starting the
unsubscription process again, from the start.
After entering the one-time code and clicking button
.
He is now no longer subscribed to the newsletter.
NOTICE:
Because Herbert has to confirm the unsubscribe request, it is not
possible to unsubscribe someone else from the newsletter; only if you
control the corresponding e-mail address you can enter the one-time
code and hence unsubscribe. This is a security measure.
The subscription process does not require the attention of the Newsletter Administrator. However, once a subscriber is successfully unsubscribed, a notification is sent to the Newsletter Administrator, as illustrated below.
Depending on the newsletter configuration (see section 3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel), subscribers receive one of three e-mail variants as the newsletter is published.
The first two variants invite the subscriber to read the newsletter online. This is a way to draw traffic to the website. The third variant is "stand alone", i.e. the newsletter is completely self-contained in the e-mail message and no online connection is necessary to read it.
This variant is a short and simple message inviting the subscriber to read the full newsletter online. The table of contents is included in the announcement, as illustrated below.
This variant not only contains the announcement (including the table of contents) but also the opening paragraphs of the newsletter articles (called teasers or Ankeilers).
Clicking the link Read online... shows the full online article at the top of the browser window. Clicking Read more... shows the remainder of the full online article at the top of the browser window.
This variant contains the full newsletter, without the need for an online connection.
Depending on the newsletter configuration (see section 3.1.4 Contribution policy), visitors are allowed to submit contributions for future issues of the newsletter.
NOTICE:
Contributions are limited to plain text, i.e. it is not possible to
use fancy markup or upload images. This is a security measure.
After clicking Contribute, in the green bar at the bottom of the screen, the Article contribution dialogue opens.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
In this example the author (Maria Montessori) is currently logged
in. Because of that her name and e-mail address are entered
in the form automatically, in a read-only fashion. It is not
possible for her to alter this information. However, the Newsletter
Editors can change the author name lateron.
NOTICE:
If the contribution policy allows it, anyone can contribute an article
and use any name and any e-mail address, perhaps even non-existing
ones. However, if the author happens to be logged in, the name and
e-mail address will still be added to the form automatically, but in
an editable way. If the author is not logged in, the
contribution form starts with empty name and e-mail fields.
The Preview article dialogue allows the author to perform one final check before submitting the article. The following items are displayed.
After pressing 3.2.4 Postponing an article and 3.2.5 Selecting an article) and a thank-you-message is displayed, as illustrated below.
the article is added to the list of postponed articles (see sections
Finally, a notification is sent to inform the Newsletter Administrator that a new article has just been submitted (see below).
Newsletter administration can be done via Page Manager as follows. Click the name of the newsletter page, e.g. Newsletter (44/newsletter). The Newsletter overview dialogue is displayed, as illustrated below.
The Newsletter-module provides a structured way to create newsletters and send them to subscribers by e-mail and (optionally) publish them online too. The following options are available in the submenu.
Explanation:
The main configuration of the newsletter consists of a single (long) page. For the purpose of readability the various parts of that configuration page are discussed in separate subsections below. Click Configure to open the Newsletter configuration dialogue.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
It is best to make a wise choice for the newsletter channel and stick
to it. If, however, you initially selected Full mail
only and later change your mind and pick one of the two other
options, the newsletters that were published while Full mail
only was in effect will not magically become
available in the newsletter archive. This is a security measure.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Section 5.4 Overview of available template
variables contains a list of all variables that are available for
use in templates like this.
NOTICE:
Whenever a new newsletter is created (see the example in section
2.1 Newsletters for the impatient), the various
templates are filled with a default value. These default values are
configurable too, via the Translate Tool.
The newsletter layout can be controlled using the various template fields discussed below. All these templates accept the variables described in section 5.4 Overview of available template variables.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Section 5.3 Overview of available CSS selectors
contains a list of all CSS selectors that are available for styling of
the newsletter.
NOTICE:
This field Extra style contains CSS-code that is used
in the Print-version and the (Full) e-mail-version of the newsletter.
The website version of the newsletter can have a different styling,
based on the contents of the field Extra style at page/section
level, available via the Advanced link in the Menu.
Details are discussed in section 5.2 CSS in newsletter vs. BSSS on webpage.
The other four template fields are edited using your configured preferred editor. This could be the CKEditor (as used in the four screenshots below) or the Plain HTML editor.
Explanation:
<h1>{TITLE}</h1>
<h2>{SUBTITLE}</h2>
Volume {VOLUME} - Number {NUMBER} - Published {DATE}
<hr>
<p>The latest issue of {TITLE} has just been published here: {ISSUE}.</p>
<p>A printer-friendly version is available here: {PRINT}.</p>
<p>Below is the table of contents.</p>
This means that there is no colofon, no colofon title and also no link to the colofon in the table of contents.
<hr>
{TITLE} {UNSUBSCRIBE} {PRINT}
NOTICE:
The editor shown here is the same editor that is used in simple
HTML-pages (see HTML
Page). This implies that it is also possible to insert images into
these four templates, just like in any other plain HTML-page. For
example, you could add your logo to the Newsletter
header to jazz it up. Don't use a huge image though, that
takes up a lot of bandwidth when you send newsletters to many
subscribers.
Explanation:
Explanation:
Explanation:
NOTICE:
If these fields are empty, nothing is displayed. However, if these
fields are not empty, they are displayed, even when there
are no newsletters yet or when the archive is disabled (see the
discussion of the Newsletter channel in section
3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel).
NOTICE:
You can see an example of non-empty fields in the example given in
section 2.1 Newsletters for the impatient.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Usually the Next issue number is incremented
automatically. However, this number should be reset to 1 manually if
the Next issue volume is changed.
NOTICE:
The newsletter volume can be referenced in templates with
{VOLUME}. The newsletter number can be referenced in
templates with {NUMBER}. See section 5.4
Overview of available template variables for a complete list.
NOTICE:
The combination of issue volume and issue number must be unique (per
newsletter (publication)); if you attempt to use a combination that
was already used before, an error message will show.
A newsletter always consists of one or more articles. Each article has
The table of contents is generated automatically from the article titles and is inserted at the top of the newsletter. Newsletter articles can be added, edited, selected, postponed, deleted and the order can be changed.
Click Compose to show the Compose dialogue.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Each article title is followed by the article number in
parentheses. This makes it easier to distinguish articles that might
otherwise look the same because of identical titles, e.g. "Chess
tournament".
Click Add an article to open the Add new article dialogue. Here you can add an article to the newsletter.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
The body of the article is edited using the editor selected for this
user. In this example the CKEditor is used. This editor can be used in
full screen mode by clicking the screen icon (near the end of the last
button bar). Editing in full screen mode yields a better overview
if the article is longer than a few lines.
After pressing Volunteers wanted (8) is stored and added at the end of the list of selected articles, as illustrated below.
the articleClick on an article title, e.g. Visit to the Botanical Gardens 2015-04-24 (3). The Edit article n dialogue appears. This is almost the same as the Add new article dialogue discussed in the previous section.
The notable difference is that the field E-mail (will not be published) is no longer editable. The other fields can still be edited.
The modified article can be stored by pressing
.NOTICE:
The CKEditor is capable of inserting images into text. The
remainder of this section outlines the procedure for inserting an
image. Note that this is just a quick recipe rather than an in-depth
discussion of all options in the CKEditor. See Editors for more information.
Take the following steps if you want to insert an image into an article.
The modified article can be stored by pressing
. After that, the Compose dialogue is displayed again.Click next to the article (e.g. Chess tournament (5)) to delete an article. The Delete article n dialogue is displayed.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Once an article is deleted, it cannot be undeleted. This
confirmation dialogue attempts to let you think twice before really
deleting an article.
Click the double arrow down icon to move the corresponding article from the list Articles selected for this issue to the list Articles selected for future issues.
Example: after clicking the double arrow down icon corresponding with Upcoming events (2), that article is now the first in the list of postponed articles, as illustrated below.
Click the double arrow up icon to move the corresponding article from the list Articles selected for future issues to the end of the list Articles selected for this issue.
Example: after clicking the double arrow up icon corresponding with Chess tournament (7), that article is now the last in the list of selected articles, as illustrated below.
NOTICE:
Contributions to the newsletter (see section 2.7
Contributing) initially appear in the list Articles
selected for future issues. This allows a Newsletter Editor
to examine the contribution before selecting it for the upcoming
newsletter issue.
The sort order of the articles can be changed using the corresponding arrow buttons:
Example: after clicking the arrow up icon corresponding with Chess tournament (7), that article is now one position higher in the list. After clicking the arrow down icon corresponding with From the principal (1), that article is now second in the list. The list now looks like this:
Click Preview to show a preview of the newsletter. This will open in a new browser window, as illustrated below.
This preview of the newsletter is similar to the Print-version of a newsletter (see section 2.2 Reading the latest issue). The styling of the newsletter (e.g. the blue bar with 'Contents' and the green bars with the article titles) is caused by the Extra style that is configured for this newsletter (see section 3.1.3 Templates for newsletter layout).
NOTICE:
Note that the article about the visit to the botanical gardens contains
the image that was added in section 3.2.2.1 Recipe
for inserting an image.
Click Send testmail to send a preview
of the newsletter to the e-mail address configured for the newsletter
(see section 3.1.2 E-mail parameters). A message
in the yellow bar indicates that a testmessage was sent:
.
This testmail shows how this newsletter will look in the
subscriber's mailbox.
NOTICE:
The image calendula.jpg that was added to the article about
the visit to the Botanical Garden will be embedded in this e-mail,
i.e. it is not just a link to an online image but an actual attachment.
Depending on the mail software used that attachment will be displayed
in-line.
Publising a newsletter can have the following effects (depending on the newsletter configuration):
In order to minimise the risk of accidently publishing a newsletter online or sending an unfinished 'work in progress'-newsletter to many subscribers prematurely, the act of publishing a newsletter requires certain permissions. See section 4.1 Access control for detailed information.
Click Publish to open the Newsletter publication v-n (yyyy-mm-dd) dialogue as illustrated below.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Note that currently the principal of the school, Amelia Cackle, is
logged in (see top-right corner of the screen). She has the necessary
permissions to publish the newsletter. See also section 4.1
Access control.
Click Preview (final version) to show a preview of the newsletter. This will open in a new browser window, as illustrated below.
NOTICE:
There is no difference between this preview and the preview discussed
in section 3.2.7 Previewing the new issue
online. However, a Newsletter Editor does not necessarily have
access to the Publish dialogue and hence
to Preview (final version). Therefore
Newsletter Editors and Newsletter Publishers each have their own
preview options.
Click Send testmail (final version) to send a preview of the newsletter to the e-mail address of the currently logged in user, i.e. Amelia Cackle. The final testmail in Amelia's mailbox looks like this.
NOCTICE:
Apart from the destination address (webmaster@exemplum.eu
versus amelia.cackle@exemplum.eu) there is no difference
between this testmail and the testmail discussed in section 3.2.8 Sending a preview by e-mail. However, a
Newsletter Editor does not necessarily have access to the Publish dialogue and hence to Send testmail (final version). Therefore
Newsletter Editors and Newsletter Publishers each have their own
testmail options.
After pressing
the following appears on the screen.An error message is displayed in the yellow bar:
.
Also the checkbox Are you sure? is displayed in red.
This is a safety precaution. The Newsletter Publisher must manually check this box before a newsletter can be published. This helps preventing accidental publication of a newsletter.
After checking the box and pressing
again, the following dialog appears.Explanation:
NOTICE:
If Website@School is configured correctly the newsletter queue is
checked on a regular basis and pending e-mails are sent (upto a
maximum of 50 at a time). This means that all newsletters in the queue
will be processed eventually.
This concludes the discussion of the newsletter publication process.
Every newsletter (publication) has its own list of subscribers, i.e. subscribers lists are not shared between newsletters. The list of subscribers also contains the newsletter blacklist: the e-mail addresses that are not allowed to subscribe to the newsletter.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview.
Explanation:
Click Add a subscriber in the Subscribers overview to display the Add new subscriber dialogue.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
The e-mail address is NOT validated by sending a testmail
with a one-time confirmation code (see sections 2.4.1 Validation and approval and 2.4.2 Validation only) because the Newsletter
Administrator is expected to enter the correct e-mail address here.
After pressing
.
NOTICE:
By default the list of subscribers is ordered by status and email
address. The new record for Georgian King [sic] is
inserted between those of Catherine and Wilhelmina.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click the ID (e.g. 5) or Full name (e.g. Georgian King) to display the Edit subscriber n dialogue.
Explanation:
NOTICE:
Even though it is not necessary to add a real name to a subscriber
record it is highly recommended. The real name is added to outgoing
newsletters. Messages without a real name are sometimes classified as
spam and subsequently discarded at the receiving end.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click the delete icon () corresponding to the subscriber to show the Delete subscriber n dialogue.
Explanation:
If the newsletter subscription policy is set to Approval (see section 3.1.5 Subscription policy), the subscription process for visitors consists of two steps (see the example in section 2.4.1 Validation and approval). The first step is to validate the e-mail address. This is done automatically.
The second step is approving the subscription request by a Newsletter Administrator. This starts with the following e-mail message being sent to the Newsletter Administrator.
This is an invitation for the Newsletter Administrator to take action. Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview.
This table indicates that the e-mail address catherine@exemplum.eu (Catherine Hayes) is confirmed but not yet approved. By clicking on the corresponding ID (3) or Full name (Catherine Hayes), the Newsletter Administrator can edit the properties of this subscriber.
NOTICE:
By default the subscribers are ordered by status: first
Confirmed, then Approved and finally
Blacklist. This means that the new subscribers with
status Confirmed are always at the top of the
list.
After changing the Status from Confirmed to Approved and clicking 2.4.1 Validation and approval.
Two messages are displayed in the yellow bar: , a notification is sent to catherine@exemplum.eu. This is the notification that Catherine received at the end of sectionNOTICE:
An approval notification is only sent in case the Subscription Policy
is set to Approved and the subscribe status
changes from Confirmed to
Approved.
In case the Subscription Policy is set to Validation, no notifications are sent to the new subscriber because the subscription process is self-service (see the example in section 2.4.2 Validation only). However, a notification is sent to the Newsletter Administrator to tell the administrator that a new subscriber added himself to the list of subscribers. Below is an example of such a notification.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click Add a subscriber to display the Add new subscriber dialogue.
This is the same dialogue as the one discussed in section 3.4.1 Adding a subscriber.
The key difference is the subscriber status: if the status is Approved the subscriber will receive newsletters by e-mail.
However, if the status Blacklist is selected, the e-mail address will not receive newsletters at all. Also, it will not be possible to subscribe with that e-mail address.
NOTICE:
Wilhelmina Bladergroen ('WB') added a short remark about adding this
e-mail address to the blacklist. This way the other Newsletter
Administrators can see why the address was blacklisted.
After pressing
the new (blacklisted) subscriber is added to the list and the Subscribers overview is displayed again.The yellow bar shows the following message:
NOTICE:
The new record appears at the end of the list because the list is
ordered by subscription status: Confirmed,
Approved and finally Blacklist.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click Download subscribers in the Subscribers overview to download a CSV-file (Comma Separated Values) with all subscriber data for this newsletter.
NOTICE:
The browser suggests a name for the download file:
newsletter-44.txt. The number 44 corresponds to the page to
which this newsletter is linked. This helps to keep track of downloads
of subscribers from different newsletters.
Explanation:
The file newsletter-44.txt contains the following five lines:
"email","name","remarks",status "andrew@exemplum.eu","Andrew Reese","",2 "catherine@exemplum.eu","Catherine Hayes","I want to subscribe because I am an editor of this newsletter!",2 "webmaster@exemplum.eu","Wilhelmina Bladergroen","",2 "ludovico@exemplum.eu","","His teacher asked me to ban this e-mail address (WB)",3
The first line consists of four words ('email', 'name', 'remarks' and 'status), separated by commas. This line defines the structure of the rest of the file. The following lines contains the subscriber records, e.g. for Andrew Reese:
In this particular case the double quotes '"' are not necessary
because there are no commas in any field. However, if a field
would contain a comma and no quotes are being used, confusion
could arise. Consider this line:
andrew@exemplum.eu,Reese,Andrew,,2
. Because of the comma
in 'Reese, Andrew' this line might be wrongly interpreted as follows:
Therefore double quotes are always added in the download file.
NOTICE:
The last line in this example ends with the number 3. This
corresponds to an entry with status Blacklist. The
number 1 indicates an e-mail address with status
Confirmed and the number 2 indicates a
record with status Approved.
It is possible to add subscribers by uploading a CSV-file (Comma Separated Values) with subscriber data. If the format of that file matches that of a download file, as discussed in section 3.4.6 Downloading subscriber data, the upload is very straightforward, see section 3.4.7.1 Uploading a download file.
Another option is to cut-and-paste subscriber records, see section 3.4.7.2 Adding subscribers via cut and paste.
A more convoluted example, with an upload of a CSV-file created elsehwere, is discussed in section 3.4.7.3 Uploading a different CSV-file.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click Upload subscribers in the Subscribers overview to show the Upload subscriber list.
Explanation:
After pressing
the specified file is uploaded and parsed and the following dialog is displayed.Explanation:
After pressing
the uploaded records that are not skipped are added to or updated in the database. The Subscribers overview appears again.The yellow bar shows the following message:
NOTICE:
In this example nothing has changed because we merely uploaded the
file that was downloaded moments ago, in section 3.4.6 Downloading subscriber data. However, the
existing records are overwritten with the data from the
uploaded file. In other words: the uploaded file trumps any existing
data.
Click Subscribers to show the Subscribers overview. Click Upload subscribers in the Subscribers overview to show the Upload subscriber list.
Explanation:
This is essentially the same dialog as the one in section 3.4.7.1 Uploading a download file. The differences are:
After pressing
the specified data is uploaded and parsed and the following dialog is displayed.This is the essentially the same result compared to the example in section 3.4.7.1 Uploading a download file. Notably missing is the contents of the Remarks field: no remarks data was uploaded so obviously no remarks will be added.
After pressing
the uploaded records that are not skipped are added to or updated in the database. The Subscribers overview appears again.The yellow bar shows the following message:
This section extends the example in section 3.4.7.1 Uploading a download file. This time the file to upload (/tmp/upload.csv) has a different internal structure. This file might be generated on another computer system, e.g. a school administration system or another mailing list program. This example CSV-file contains 10 lines, as illustrated below.
Last name,First name,Display Name,Nickname,Primary Email,Secondary Email,Group Bladergroen,Wilhelmina,Wilhelmina Bladergroen,wblade,webmaster@exemplum.eu,wblade@exemplum.eu, Cackle,Amelia,Amelia Cackle,acackl,amelia.cackle@exemplum.eu,, Montessori,Maria,Maria Montessori,mmonte,maria.montessori@exemplum.eu,,Seniors Parkhurst,Helen,Helen Parkhurst,hparkh,helen.parkhurst@exemplum.eu,,Juniors Frinton,Freddie,Freddie Frinton,ffrint,freddie.frinton@exemplum.eu,, Reese,Andrew,Andrew Reese,andrew,andrew@exemplum.eu,,Seniors Hayes,Catherine,Catherine Hayes,catherine,catherine@exemplum.eu,,Seniors Spencer,Herbert,Herbert Spencer,herbert,herbert@exemplum.eu,,Juniors King,Georgina,Georgina King,georgina,georgina@exemplum.eu,,Juniors
Every line contains seven fields, separated with a comma (','). The first line indicates which is which:
For a successful import of subscribers, we want to combine a few fields from this CSV-file, as follows:
After selecting the CSV-file and entering the correct values in the index-fields, the Upload subscriber list dialog looks like this.
After pressing
the specified data is uploaded and parsed and the following dialog is displayed.Explanation:
The result is comparable with the results in earlier examples in sections 3.4.7.1 Uploading a download file and 3.4.7.2 Adding subscribers via cut and paste. Notable differences are:
After pressing
the uploaded records that are not skipped are added to or updated in the database. The Subscribers overview appears again.The yellow bar shows the following message:
Publishing a newsletter (see section 3.3.3 Publishing the new newsletter issue) usually means that individual copies of the newsletter have to be sent to each subscriber. This is done in batches of up to 50 a time. Newsletters for other subscribers remain in the newsletter queue but eventually all newsletters will be sent.
Click Queue to show the Queue overview.
Explanation:
Once all entries in the queue are processed, the Queue overview looks like this.
The yellow bar shows the following message:
Press the button
to return to the Content dialogue.NOTICE:
If errors occur, the entry is scheduled for a retry in the future. The
interval between retries doubles after every attempt, starting with 1
hour. After 10 retries (about 6 weeks) the entry is silently
discarded.
NOTICE:
The automatic processing of the newsletter queue depends on the
correct configuration of Website@School, notably the periodic call to
cron.php. If, for some reason, this cron job is not working,
you can process entries manually by clicking the button
every once in a while. Please allow
for some processing time between button clicks.
In order to minimise the risk of accidently publishing a newsletter online or sending an unfinished 'work in progress'-newsletter to many subscribers prematurely, the act of publishing a newsletter requires certain permissions (see also section 3.3 Publish). Two roles are recognised: Newsletter Editor and Newsletter Publisher. These are discussed below.
The significant distinction between a Newsletter Editor and Newsletter Publisher is that a Newsletter Editor is not allowed to actually publish a newsletter. Permissions for editing a newsletter (but not publishing) can be granted to a single user or a group of users (see section 3.2.5 Page Manager in Account Manager).
In the demonstration data that was added when Website@School was first installed, two pupils of the Exemplum Primary School, Andrew Reese and Catherine Hayes, were granted permission to act as Newsletter Editor for the Monthly Exemplum Newsletter.
If Andrew attempts to publish a newsletter by clicking Publish, the following is displayed.
The yellow bar shows the following message:
However, Andrew (and Catherine) do have permissions to perform all other tasks regarding this Newsletter.
In this example the permissions are granted to the group/capacity known as seniors/Pupil. This means that all accounts that belong to the group seniors in the Pupil-capacity are automatically allowed to perform the tasks of a Newsletter Editor. Both Andrew Reese and Catherine Hayes are a Pupil in the seniors-group.
Permissions for Newsletter Editor equate to the role of Contentmaster for Page 44: Newsletter, as illustrated below.
You can navigate to this screen using the following recipe.
Unlike a Newsletter Editor a Newsletter Publisher is allowed to actually publish a newsletter. In this example the permissions are granted to the group/capacity known as faculty/Principal. This means that all accounts that belong to the group faculty in the Principal-capacity are automatically allowed to perform the tasks of a Newsletter Publisher. Amelia Cackle is the Principal in the faculty-group.
Permissions for Newsletter Publisher equate to the role of Pagemaster for Page 44: Newsletter, as illustrated below.
You can navigate to this screen using the recipe from the previous section, applied to faculty/Principal.
NOTICE:
Wilhelmina Bladergroen, who installed Website@School (see Installation),
has all permissions, for everything. This includes the role of
Guru for Page 44: Newsletter.
In other words: Wilhelmina does not explicitly require the role of
Pagemaster to be able to publish a newsletter because
the role of Guru implies the role of
Pagemaster.
Here is a reacapitulation of the permissions in this example.
If the newsletter channel is set to Website only (see section 3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel), subscribers receive a short announcement when the new issue is available. This announcement may or may not contain teasers (Ankeilers).
Teasers are created as follows.
The result is a horizontal line between the last word of the first paragraph ('consequat.') and the first word of the second paragraph ('Duis'), as illustrated below. This line separates the teaser from the rest of the article body.
NOTICE:
The line itself will not be published as part of the article;
it will be removed automatically in the publication process.
It is also possible to insert a line manually, i.e. by inserting an HR-tag (Horizontal Ruler) directly into the HTML-code of the article body. See the example below. The tag is displayed in bold.
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</p> <hr /> <p>Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p> <p>Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
After saving the article, the effect of the horizontal line can be observed by sending a test e-mail (Send testmail in the Compose dialogue). A snippet of the testmail is shown below.
Clicking the link Read online... will show the full online article at the top of the browser window. Clicking Read more... will show the remainder of the full online article at the top of the browser window (see also section 2.6.2 Announcement with teasers).
NOTICE:
If there is at least 1 article with an HR-tag then
all articles will be considered to have a teaser. However,
the articles without an HR-tag will have an empty
teaser. This is consistent with the idea of sending an announcement
only.
If the newsletter channel is set to Website only or Both (see section 3.1.1 Name, subtitle and channel), an archive of newsletters will be available. Also, the latest issue of the newsletter will always be visible on the newsletter home page.
The canonical URLs of published newsletters never change. That means that the third issue of volume 2014 of the Monthly Exemplum Newsletter is always available at http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/volume/2014/number/3/Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html This canonical URL consists of the following components.
Alternatively this same newsletter can be retrieved from this URL: http://exemplum.eu/index.php?node=44&volume=2014&number=3 This URL consists of the following components.
NOTICE:
The former URL is much more readable than the latter. Also, the last
part of the path (Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html) in the
canonical URL gives a good idea what this URL links to. However, note
that this last part of the path is purely informational; it can be
omitted without problems. In that case the URL becomes a little
shorter (if a tad less descriptive):
http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/volume/2014/number/3
The latest newsletter is always available at the newsletter home page: http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html. However, once a newer newsletter is published, this URL will point to that newer newsletter. Linking to a specific newsletter works best by specifying the corresponding volume and number parameters.
It is possible to refer to particular positions within a published newsletter. This is done by adding a fragment to the newsletter URL. The following fragments are recognised.
Example 1:
a fully qualified link to the second article in volume 2014, number 3
('Plans for the next year'):
http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/volume/2014/number/3/Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html#h3
Example 2:
a fully qualified link to the colofon in volume 2014, number 1 (which
contains 4 articles and a colofon):
http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/volume/2014/number/1/Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html#h5
Example 3:
a fully qualified link to the table of contents in the latest
newsletter:
http://exemplum.eu/index.php/44/Monthly_Exemplum_Newsletter.html#toc
As a rule published newsletters are available in two different versions: the website version and the print version, see the examples in section 2.2 Reading the latest issue. The newsletter content is the same, it is just the presentation (styling) that is different.
The website version of the newsletter is styled using BSSS (Bazaar Style Style Sheets), using:
See section 2.2 Theme configuration in chapter Theme Frugal and sections 4.3 Advanced: Edit advanced properties of section nn and 3.3 Advanced: Edit advanced properties of page nn in chapter Page Manager).
Here is the Extra style at page/section level for page 44 as it is configured in the demonstration data.
Explanation:
The print version is styled using plain CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The styling depends solely on the Extra style in the newsletter configuration (see section 3.1.3 Templates for newsletter layout).
Explanation:
The combination of the two versions below shows the differences between the website version (on the lefthand side) and the print version (on the righthand side) of the same newsletter.
The newsletter home page can be styled via the selectors in the table below. Note that the 5 tags are not nested.
Tag | Selector id | Selector class | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
H2 | #newsletter_view_header | ||
DIV | #newsletter_view_introduction | ||
DIV | #newsletter_view_body | Contains the latest newsletter, see below | |
DIV | #newsletter_view_footer | ||
DIV | #newsletter_view_navigation |
The newsletters can be styled using the selectors in the table below. The website versions of the newsletters are contained within the DIV with selector #newsletter_view_body (see previous table).
Tag | Selector id | Selector class | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
DIV | .newsletter_header | ||
DIV | #newsletter_outer_0 | .newsletter_toc_outer | contains H3 and UL below |
H3 | #newsletter_header_0 | .newsletter_toc_header | |
UL | #newsletter_inner_0 | .newsletter_toc_inner | |
DIV | #newsletter_outer_1 | .newsletter_article_outer | contains H3, DIV, DIV, DIV below |
H3 | #newsletter_header_1 | .newsletter_article_header | |
DIV | #newsletter_author_1 | .newsletter_article_author | |
DIV | #newsletter_inner_1 | .newsletter_article_inner | |
DIV | .newsletter_article_remarks | only in article contribution | |
... | ... | ... | repeat for articles 2,3,...,N-1 |
DIV | #newsletter_outer_N | .newsletter_colofon_outer | contains H3 and DIV below |
H3 | #newsletter_header_N | .newsletter_colofon_header | |
DIV | #newsletter_inner_N | .newsletter_colofon_inner | |
DIV | .newsletter_footer |
NOTICE:
The selectors in the column Selector id are all
numbered. Number 0 is always reserved for the table of contents, the
articles are numbered starting with 1 and the colofon is numbered 1
higher than the last article.
There are six template fields in the newsletter configuration that accept variables (see sections 3.1.2 E-mail parameters and 3.1.3 Templates for newsletter layout):
This is an overview of parameters that can be used in these templates.